纳森·罗森1909—1995

他在1935年与爱因斯坦及鲍里斯·波多尔斯基共同提出当时量子物理学理论下会出现的EPR佯谬现象。有关文章刊于《物理评论》1935年第47卷，题目为《能认为量子力学对物理实在的描述是完全的吗？》（Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of Physical Reality Be Considered Complete?）。后又与爱因斯坦共同提出虫洞（爱因斯坦-罗森桥）假说。

生平

纳森·罗森出生于纽约布鲁克林的一个犹太人家庭。他在经济大萧条时期就读于麻省理工学院，获得了机电工程学士学位，后来也获得物理学硕士和博士学位。他在学生时期发表了几篇值得注意的论文，一篇讨论“中子”，试图解释原子核的结构。当他在密歇根大学和普林斯顿大学担任研究员时，也对波函数和引力产生兴趣。

1934年，他成为爱因斯坦助理，并一直在新泽西州普林斯顿高等研究院研究直至1936年。在与爱因斯坦合作时，罗森与爱因斯坦研究量子纠缠，并与鲍里斯·波多尔斯基起草了一篇论文，后人称为“EPR悖论”。

爱因斯坦和罗森发现了一种数学解可以连接太空中相隔遥远的区域，也就是虫洞。爱因斯坦-罗森桥或施瓦兹希尔德虫洞的解决方案使用爱因斯坦的场方程序来合并黑洞和白洞。理论物理学家约翰·惠勒与罗伯特·W·富勒（Robert W. Fuller）在1962年论文中证明这些类型的虫洞不稳定。

Nathan Rosen (Hebrew: נתן רוזן; March 22, 1909 – December 18, 1995) was an American and Israeli physicist noted for his study on the structure of the hydrogen molecule and his collaboration with Albert Einstein and Boris Podolsky on entangled wave functions and the EPR paradox. He is also remembered for the Einstein–Rosen bridge, the first known kind of wormhole.

Background

Nathan Rosen was born into a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York. He attended MIT during the Great Depression, where he received a bachelor's degree in electromechanical engineering and later a master's and a doctorate in physics. As a student he published several papers of note, one being "The Neutron", which attempted to explain the structure of the atomic nucleus a year before their discovery by James Chadwick. He also developed an interest in wave functions and, later, gravitation, when he worked as a fellow at the University of Michigan and Princeton University.

State of science

At the beginning of the 20th century, science was progressing quickly, and the inner workings of the atom were just beginning to be discovered. In 1900, Max Planck proposed the quantum theory, the idea that all energy moves in discrete amounts called quanta. In 1905, Albert Einstein published his theory of special relativity, which would be instrumental in the progression of physics and the understanding of the universe. Around 1927, Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg, collaborating with many other physicists, developed the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum theory, determining the probabilities of the movement of particles. These breakthroughs provided the model for the structure and workings of the atom and drove the revolution that would sweep up Nathan Rosen.

Work with Einstein

In 1932 with a ScD degree from MIT, he went to do research at Princeton University. In 1934 he became Albert Einstein's assistant at The Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, and continued in that position until 1936. In July 1935, Einstein and Rosen published an article developing a concept of folded spacetime in parallel layers connected by a bridge, using only general relativity and Maxwell's equations. Earlier, while working with Einstein, Rosen had pointed out the peculiarities of Einstein's studies involving entangled wave functions, and, in coordination with Boris Podolsky, a paper was drafted and published in May 1935 helping to develop a theoretical basis for the July 1935 publication. The May 1935 paper, entitled "Can quantum-mechanical description of physical reality be considered complete?" labeled these effects the Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen paradox, or EPR paradox.

Later years

Later in his life, Nathan Rosen turned his attentions to teaching and the establishment of new universities. After briefly working for two years in the Soviet Union at the University of Kiev starting in 1936, he returned to the United States, where he taught at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1941 to 1952. In 1953, after permanently moving to Israel, he joined the Technion in Haifa. During this time, Rosen was advisor to Asher Peres. Technion now has a lecture series named for him. He was President of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in the 1970s and commuted between the two institutions from his home in Haifa. Additionally, Nathan Rosen helped found the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the Physical Society of Israel (serving as president from 1955 to 1957), and the International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation (president 1974–1977). He was very active in encouraging the founding of higher educational institutions in Israel.

He died on December 18, 1995, at his home in Haifa at the age of 86.

Contributions to physics

Rosen made a number of contributions to modern physics. One of the most lasting discoveries Rosen brought to physics was his formulation of the structure of the hydrogen molecule, a molecule where neither of the electrons have a definite quantum number, but the pair of electrons has a pure state. Rosen used what he called "entangled" wave functions to represent the molecule's structure.

He also developed a theoretical analysis of the neutron as a combination of proton and electron in a 1931 article in Physical Review.